Ari. Ay, sir.

Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with

child,

And here was left by the sailors: thou, my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant:
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests,1 she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died,
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy

groans,

As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island,
(Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honor'd with
A human shape.

Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in: thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo: it was mine art, When I arrived, and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out.

Ari.

I thank thee, master.

Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

Ari.

I will be correspondent to command,
And do my sprighting 1 gently.

Pro.

I will discharge thee.

Ari.

1

Pardon, master:

Do so; and after two days

That's my noblé master!

What shall I do? say what? what shall I do? Pro. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea; be subject

To no sight but thine and mine; invisible

To every eye-ball else. Go, take this shape,
And hither come in 't; go, hence, with diligence.

[Exit Ariel. Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!

Mir. The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me.

Pro.

Shake it off: Come on;

We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mir.

'Tis a villain, sir,

But, as 'tis,

I do not love to look on.

Pro.

We cannot miss 2 him: he does make our fire.

Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices

That profit us.

What, ho! slave! Caliban!

Thou earth, thou! speak!

Cal. [within] There's wood enough within.
Pro. Come forth, I say; there's other business
for thee;

Come, thou tortoise! when?

Re-enter ARIEL, like a water-nymph.

Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari.

My lord, it shall be done.

[Exit.

Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil

himself

Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

Enter CALIBAN.

Cal. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er!

Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have

cramps,

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins 1
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made them.

Cal.

I must eat my dinner.

1 Hedge-hogs, which were reckoned among the animals used by witches as their familiar spirits.